Japan Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant blog
Tracking Fukushima news from day 1 : | Now one of the world's largest Public Available Repositories of the Chronology of the Daiichi Nuclear ongoing Disaster.
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On April 26, 1986, an explosion in one of the plant's reactors spewed large amounts of radioactive material over Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. The immediate area was evacuated, but the cloud that rose from the burning reactor spread iodine and radionuclides over much of Europe. Some 30 workers were killed immediately, and as many as 4,000 people are expected to die eventually as a result of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl plant, by the World Health Organization's reckoning. Some estimates of the excess cancer toll are far higher. ...

....A plan for a more permanent protective solution, developed more than 15 years ago by European and Western experts, finally is being put into action. The $2 billion (1.6 billion Euro) effort, funded by more than two dozen nations and the European Union, is "an unparalleled project in the history of engineering," says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the project administrator.....

After shoring up the sarcophagus, workers raised the first section of the new structure’s arched roof, seen here in November....

Caesium (Cs) has 40 known isotopes. The atomic masses of these isotopes range from 112 to 151. Only one isotope, 133Cs, is stable. The longest-lived radioisotopes are 135Cs with a half-life of 2.3 million years, 137Cs with a half-life of 30.1671 years and 134Cs with a half-life of 2.0652 years. All other isotopes have half-lives less than 2 weeks, most under an hour.
Beginning in 1945 with the commencement of nuclear testing, caesium isotopes were released into the atmosphere where it is absorbed readily into solution and is returned to the surface of the earth as a component of radioactive fallout. Once caesium enters the ground water, it is deposited on soil surfaces and removed from the landscape primarily by particle transport. As a result, the input function of these isotopes can be estimated as a function of time.
Standard atomic mass: 132.9054519(2) u

SAN DIEGO (CN) - The Fukushima nuclear disaster exposed Navy rescue workers to dangerous levels of radiation, which the government-owned power plant covered up, eight U.S. sailors claim in court.
Eight crew members of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, whose home port is San Diego, sued the Tokyo Electric Power Co. in Federal Court.
They claim the utility company, "a wholly owned public benefit subsidiary of the government of Japan," misrepresented radiation levels to lull the U.S. Navy "into a false sense of security."
Lead plaintiff Lindsay R. Cooper claims Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) intentionally concealed the dangerous levels of radiation in the environment from U.S. Navy rescue crews working off the coast of Japan after the March 10, 2011 earthquake and tsunami set off the nuclear disaster.
"TEPCO pursued a policy to cause rescuers, including the plaintiffs, to rush into an unsafe area which was too close to the FNPP [Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant] that had been damaged. Relying upon the misrepresentations regarding health and safety made by TEPCO ... the U.S. Navy was lulled into a false sense of security," the complaint states.......

.............. "As a consequence of the earthquake and tsunami, the reactors were damaged and power to the cooling mechanism of the FNPP was interrupted, resulting in a meltdown of the fuel and reactor itself, thereby triggering the release of high levels of radiation." And, they say: "Defendants had actual and/or constructive knowledge of the properties of radiation that would ensure that, once released into the environment, radiation would spread further and in concentrations that would cause injury to the plaintiffs."............
................ The plaintiffs claim the government deliberately misled them: "the Japanese government kept representing that there was no danger of radiation contamination to the U.S.S. Reagan ... and/or its crew, that 'everything is under control,' 'all is OK, you can trust us,' and there is 'no immediate danger' or threat to human life, all the while lying through their teeth about the reactor meltdowns at FNPP. "Such reports were widely circulated with the defendant, TEPCO's, organization at the time it was published, despite the fact that the defendant knew that higher levels of radiation existed within the area whereat the plaintiffs and their vessel would be and were operating."..................

.............. They are seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages for fraud, negligence, strict liability, failure to warn, public and private nuisance, and defective design. They also want TEPCO ordered to establish a fund of $100 million to pay for their medical expenses. They are represented by Paul Garner.

Thursday, 20 December 2012

These images appear to be from late 2011. The spent fuel pool end of unit 4 is partially dismantled yet the upper side corners remain. Those were eventually removed. All images appear to be from a video from NHK broadcasting. (Many thanks to Mary W for finding them). Commentary before each photo.

North East corner of unit 4 circles indicate breaks in the outer building frame. The green vertical line shows where the building begins to angle off vertical.Without another image from this angle it is unclear if the back of unit 4 is buckling in more or not. Rust has begun appearing on theweld joints of the vent tower seen behind the building. Image has been enhanced and cropped, please keep watermark in place if used elsewhere.

Now THAT'S the way a nuclear plant should look.... I feel all warm and cozy now.....

The amount of nuclear spent fuel there is tatamount to a ELE... maybe not now... but.....

Updated: 06:34, Thursday December 20, 2012

The NSW opposition says state government plans to store radioactive waste in Sydney's west could pose health risks to locals.The state government plans to store potentially hazardous radioactive waste from the former Hunters Hill uranium smelter at Lidcombe, with non-hazardous material being sent to Kemps Creek.But opposition environment spokesman Luke Foley said on Monday that NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell was 'ploughing ahead with taking radioactive dirt from Hunters Hill and dumping it on the people of western Sydney'.Mr Foley said the government was 'condemning the people of western Sydney to 300 years of risk from radioactive material sitting within metres from streets and homes'.The government has said any hazardous waste from the former uranium smelter would be kept at a secret Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) facility at Lidcombe.The facility has been taking radioactive material, including waste from hospitals, for more than 20 years, it said.About 200 people attended a public meeting on the issue in Penrith on Monday night.A spokeswoman for NSW Finance Minister Greg Pearce confirmed to AAP that no hazardous waste would go to the Kemps Creek waste facility at Penrith.'Nothing that is classified as hazardous will go to Kemps Creek, it's all going to this facility at Lidcombe. The non-hazardous stuff will go to Kemps Creek,' the spokeswoman said.She said the whole process would be overseen by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

1. what if they can't bankroll the maintenance?... storage?.. upkeep?.... evil times ahead.. we have nowhere to put it.. may as well call an ELE in the next 40-100 years if they can't find a solution... they can't keep boiling forever...

i forwarned of this along time ago, but it yielded little public or academic interest....

a nuke plant is as old as what we consider to be an antique vehicle... without new parts, how fast would the jalope fall apart?... see many stock standard sherman tanks in mint condition?... stuff rust, corodes, warps...

ever think they can get near some of the internals?....

the doom bell has tolled, well and truly..... as fukushima continues to spew it's poison 24/7... a kind of two evils.. it took a presumed ELE eventually, to alert the world to covert world of nuclear science and fact......

Friday, 14 December 2012

DESTROYED: The Fukushima nuclear reactor after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Picture: REUTERS

TOKYO — The Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety, to be held in Koriyama, Japan, from Saturday, aims to dispel myths about the nuclear emergency that followed last year’s earthquake and tsunami and its effects on the region.
"There are a multitude of myths and untruths that have arisen since the accident in March last year. This conference aims to dispel some of them by providing the facts and then getting the media to disseminate this both here and abroad," Taisuke Mibae, assistant secretary-general of the conference, said on Thursday.

Very seldom does one come across anything worth donating to... ie cancer, children et al etc.. however this is one person i know.. and would help.. please see right hand link.. he is the first and only stop for translation.. god save the children...

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

[...] Since plutonium and uranium were detected from the samples at the 3
periodic sampling spots collected on April 11 and 25, we conducted americium and
curium analyses. As a result, americium 241, curium 242, 243, and 244 were
detected as shown in the attachment 3.
Today, we informed the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the
government of Fukushima Prefecture of the results...

Low concentrations of curium were found in soil samplings in Okuma town 2 or
3 km away from the plant. This is the first time curium is found outside of the
plant. It is a by-product of plutonium. The Education and Science ministry says
it is a concern for internal exposure.

Monday, 10 December 2012

Chernobyl compared to Fukushima... 80% of fukushima went over the pacific ocean to canada and usa.

The most struck parts of N.-W.:rn North America has a fallout level in-between the immediate area in Chernobyl-Prypyat and my own very area.We have no reliable research works in the matter; but I'd say cancer will double or go up like 300%. Maybe even more at the reddest parts.There are signs things are getting worse in otherwise already polluted areas. Deer animals are the most contaminated land living mammals. Avoid mushrooms. If you are a reindeer herder: measure your stock; slaughter and dig it well under he ground. The remaining animals must be fed with additional hay. Lichen is something to avoid for the following years.

From very beginning, it was obvious the problems we would see with conscripting legally a workforce for Fukushima clean up.

What are FACTS are the following, given in mind that even robots fail at Fukushima under the high radiation;

1. The Yakuza openly conscripted homeless and unemployed people from the bread line.
2. The radiation doses were and are covered up and unreported.. ie: the scandal of the dosimeters lead-lined. The workforce hiding or not wearing safety meters.
3. The offer of the elderly to go into Fukushima to spare the youth.

I never stated that I was nuclear aware or even curious. The story sold to us as children was that Nuclear powerplants were seperated from the environment and therefore very safe and clever. I looked them up as a student and thought that was a fair synopsis.

However, after Fukushima, I knew something wasn't right from the get go, and started researching.

This is where my own personal account gets interesting. Few and far between were actual accounts and data of the ensuing catastrophe. After emails to Fairwinds (Arnie's wife) and several other players, they assured me that it was as dire as predicted.

There were no internet sites about the ongoing disaster, albeit on that I found on FB that was French and hard to decipher.

Enter the picture, Mozi from Fukushima-Diary. We discussed the lack of web presence, and the fear of cover up, so we both decided to make chronological presences to document what sources we could.

Fukushima diary is far superior to what I can represent, as Mozi can directly translate from the Japanese, and is doing an excellent job, even as he travels the globe. This is what he currently reports about the constitutinal change in Japan, the rise of right wing extremist groups and what it may mean for the people of Japan.

All this being said, enter the argument again of a workforce for Fukushima.

The Japanese have re-written parts of their constitution, and it is fairly scary.

The 'slavery without consent' component, has been removed from the constitution and replaced with wording that is more or less incromprehensive and obtuse.

"2. Affirmation of bondage
In article 18 of the current constitution, it is stated below,
Article 18. No person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited.
In the draft of constitutional amendment of LDP, the part of “No person shall be held in bondage of any kind.” is removed. Instead, the replacement of this article18 is very vague and lax.
第十八条 何人も、その意に反すると否とにかかわらず、社会的又は経済的関係において身体を拘束されない。
<Translate>
Article 18. Nobody is physically restricted in the social and economical relationship whether it’s against the person’s will or not.
< End>
The definition of “social and economical relationship” is not stated. It suggests the possibility of conscription for military and Fukushima decommissioning. (cf. [Column] What is going to happen for the next stage of Fukushima accident ?)"
(http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/12/column-3-reasons-why-we-must-stop-loving-japan/)

The reporting of right-wing extremists being the bread and butter type; meaning that they cannot discern them by wearing uniforms and blaring at ralleys.

The call by some members of parliment to bring back a form of conscription... wonder where they will go? (and you have an unwitting workforce only bound by the term of the conscription)

To pull it all together, a mind set that may be anything anti-Nippon, non-conformist, radical, or towhit 'Fukushima-rumoured' may see a penalty and be dishonerable in they eyes of your family, peers and colleagues.

Then we seem to have the workforce shortage for the clean up solved. Conscription.

We know of the Japanese honour system, and they emotional penalties that are paid to dishonour... so basically 'go happily to your doom'....

In October, Tepco decided to send all the employees for Fukushima. This is mandatory and they have to go twice or three times a year.
However, this would be still not enough to take the human-wave tactics to decommission Fukushima plant.
What some of the Japanese people are afraid of is that the government impose the idea on people that going to Fukushima plant is patriotic. (meaning, un-patriotic people would not go to Fukushima plant.)
Japanese government took the same tactics during WWW2 to recruit students for army. People were called “Hikokumin (=Un-Japanese)” if they reject going to the battle field and oppose the war.
Japanese people tend to have strong group mind and they are very sensitive for peer pressure so this propaganda can easily control Japanese people.
They have already started sending high school students to the disaster area for clean up the debris etc..It’s likely that they make it a credit necessary to graduate from schools to go to Fukushima (plant).
In Chernobyl, 600,000 ~ 800,000 workers were conscripted to settle down the plant. Most of them are told to have already died.

Sunday, 9 December 2012

<snip>
I’m actually not too worried about the election either, because it looks like both Obama and Romney are big fans of nuclear power. All of their friends are the people that own us. Their friends all own the news media too, so since we give them lots of money, they don’t talk bad about us. Now the Green Party, those people are just plain scary. They could possibly “shut us down”. But no one really listens to them. Most people are too busy watching TV I think. I should know, I make all that electricity for them!
The really funny thing is, electricity isn’t even the reason I was made… I was made to be a bomb-making factory! I kick out plutonium like a person craps after a big meal at a dirty taco stand! Then people from the government come along, scoop up this plutonium, and take it to labs all over the country. There, they figure out ways it can be used against other countries we don’t like, or the countries whose oil we want. Too bad our soldiers get sick from it too. I guess my owners must not care about them either.
<end snip>

This lecture was given on May 3, 2011, at the All Freeter’s Union[1], in Tokyo

Hello everyone. Let’s stop all the nuclear power plants. Now we have
the momentum to do this. If we fail, Japan will be over. I mean it — this country will be finished.

The nuclear industry has been crushing workers for 40 years. We all
must think of those 500,000 workers who have been exposed to radiation.

By the way, I disapprove of this crook, Naoto Kan. I say it again: he
is a crook, who serves only this powerful nuclear industry, being at
the mercy of it. We must not call him a politician, let alone a prime
minister — I can not help but say this anyway.

I am a commercially unsuccessful photographer who has been shooting
environmental destruction in Japan for 48 or so years and who now has
ended up witnessing the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I thought this would
inevitably occur. It was rather unfathomable for me that this kind of
accident had not occurred at any of those more than 50 reactors for more
than 40 years. I could not stress this more: this Fukushima accident —
as well as the 1999 criticality accident at the Tokai Nuclear Fuel Plant[2]
— was inevitable, and also man-made. The industry’s irresponsibility
caused those accidents. Japan’s nuclear power policy was introduced by
what I would call an irresponsible regime from the beginning. We should
rather take it for granted that such a regime should cause severe
accidents.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission made this statement today after The United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to health, Anand Grover, says the Japanese government should consult more with local communities to assess the real impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

He also stated that the Japanese culture had 'too narrow a view' on the lessons gleaned from Chernobyl.

I have commented on this attitude from the get go;

1. Lack of information.

2. Appalling testing that is poorly reported, if at all released, and too narrow the test groups.

3. A lack of testing in areas further than the exclusion zone.

Finally now, they are reporting on the state of affairs, even if in terms of 'future' attitudes.

You really think you and your little army of copy and pasters are the only people who know whats going? Everyone in japan is stupid and some numskulls with nothing better to do with their lives are the only ones who do know whats going on?

you achieve nothing with your conspiracy posts, NOTHING!"

yeah we do... it's evidence of free speech and opinion and research..... what are you doing here if you find it annoying?

... hmmm. fancy the amount of times the evidence has been proven by 'posting to a conspiracy site'.... go away/ or stay.... your post is ludicrous...

and sorry, but yes you do.... quite simply, it provides evidence of the stupidity of your post.....

oh, and on a final note.. the reason people cut/paste and comment is because your spineless criminal gubernment removed websites talking about the reality from the get go, and that they have been PROVEN to cover up and lie... and we were onto it..... and mirrored.... go and watch the new releases from TEPCO video... it's called LEARNING....